1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless network printing system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for securing information in a wireless network printing system which prevent the outflow of information such as in-house secret information, personal information, and so on, by limiting services to be provided according to wireless security levels.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) environment is based on the IEEE 802.11 Infrastructure mode WLAN or ad-hoc mode WLAN. The Infrastructure mode WLAN employs a Basic Service Set (BSS) composed of an Access Point (AP) and stations. The ad-hoc mode WLAN employs a BSS composed only of stations communicating with each other. In the Infrastructure mode, hosts access a wireless network printer server through an AP. That is, an AP, which is located between hosts and a wireless network printer server, relays packets being transmitted between the hosts and the wireless network printer server. In the ad-hoc mode, hosts (for example, personal computers (PCs)) are connected to a wireless network printer server and can directly communicate with the wireless network printer server.
When a wireless network printer server joins a wireless network, it must follow a wireless security policy of the wireless network. The wireless security policy can include: Static Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP), Extensible Authentication Protocol-Transport Level Security (EAP-TLS), EAP-Tunneled TLS (EAP-TTLS), and EAP-Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP-LEAP) included in the 802.1x standard, Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP), and Wi-Fi Protected Access-Pre-shared Key (WPA-PSK).
In these conventional technologies, all services of a wireless network printer server can be used whether a wireless security policy allowed by a wireless network is vulnerable or not. When a wireless network printer server joins a network with powerful security, the probability of the outflow of information is low when hosts communicate with the wireless network printer server. However, in a network environment without wireless security or with vulnerable wireless security, information, such as in-house secret information, personal information, information about hosts communicating with a wireless network printer server, and so on, may be obtained by undesired third parties through specific services.